Dowden responds to Methven and Co’s plan
A Government minister has said football should ‘first look after itself ’ after calls were made by a group - including Charlie Methven – for a statebacked plan to help EFL clubs avoid insolvency in the coronavirus pandemic.
A plan co-authored by Sunderland co-owner Methven and former Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee chair Damian Collins had called for the establishment by the Football Association of a Football Finance Authority (FFA), underwritten by the Government, which would provide funds to keep EFL clubs affected by the Covid-19 outbreak afloat.
Collins has argued that there may only be a few weeks "to save professional football as we know it", with League One and Two clubs in particular stretched by the complete loss of match day revenue.
Collins asked the current Secretary of State for DCMS, Oliver Dowden, what support will be available from Government? Dowden replied: "The most important first step is to get sports going behind closed doors because that helps secure revenue, so we've got the Premier League and then the Championship. I would look first to sports to look after themselves and I'm meeting extensively with the EFL and Premiership and FA. But of course we'll continue to work on this."
There have been growing calls for the Premier League to do more to help lower league clubs out during the crisis but earlier this week PL chief executive Richard Masters indicated the first priority was to complete the 2019-20 season and see how things looked.